Stirring old Memories

Walt and I are big fans of The Amazing Race.  I love watching the teams race around the world and seasons, like this one, where there are no "bad guys" (whiney women; angry men) are more fun because I have no favorite, so I'm rooting for everyone.

 
The most fun episodes are when the teams have to go to someplace where we have been.  I remember when they visited Shanghai on a sparkling clear day.  How did they manage that?  When we were in Shanghai the smog was so thick that natives wore face masks.

You felt like you could chew the air.  Yet The Amazing Race somehow found a crystal clear day.

Last night's episode started out by driving through Nice to St. Tropez (or "Saint Tropay" as one pair of contestants pronouned it).  We did not go to St. Tropez, but we did spend a couple of days in Nice when I went to France and Italy with Char and our daughters.  Since all the activity happened around St. Tropez, I wasn't paying close attention but suddenly realized they were at Les Baux, where we stopped on our bus tour.  I didn't realize what was there at the time.  I only knew it was beastly hot and that it was up high and I didn't want to a climb a hill, but I took a picture.  (I found out on Wikipedia this morning that this is known as "one of the most beautiful villages in France.")

It was fun to see what I missed....and I'm now sad that I sat down on a rock in the heat instead of joining the others.

After the Amazing Race contestants left Les Baux, they went to Arles, one of my favorite stops on all our trips, because Vincent Van Gogh did so much here.  One of the tasks the contestants had to do took place in the Amphitheatre where they sometimes hold bullfights.  It was literally across the street from our hotel.  Our room looked out on it.

The contestants also had a VanGogh task, which took them to one of the sites where he painted.  I was looking forward to doing the "VanGogh walk" around town, which takes you to many of the sites where some of his famous paintings were done.  We were going to do that, but then canceled our trip when Mike died, so I never did it.  We did stand at the spot where it says that he painted "A Starry Night" but it was just looking across the river to the sky, not as "scenic" as the bridge where The Amazing Race took place.

I look forward to future Amazing Race episodes to see what other memories they will evoke.